Moonshine Booze - Lotte Kestner - Iskwe ft Tanya Tagaq - Josh Mover & The Shakers - The Ramona Flowers
Moonshine Booze - The Place.Background - Moonshine Booze presents 'The Place', the first single off their debut album 'Desert Road', which will be released via Seahorse Recordings in mid-March. Combining grit blues rock with alternative country, their music has been described as psychedelic country blues-tinged rock, as well as brazen desert alcoholic acoustic rock.
Moonshine Booze formed in the summer of 2014 in Teramo, Italy. This trio is comprised of Andrea Manila (vocals), Emiliano Zapata (guitar) and Fabio Manchos (drums). The video for 'The Place' was a collaborative effort between Emiliano Zapata and Josh Heisenberg, with Zapata writing the scenario, Josh handling the filming and editing, and both on direction.
Having been active on the music scene for over twenty years in various bands, both in Italy and The USA, the trio has gathered and relaborated experiences from different musical genres, putting them to good use in their new project.
The initial idea behind this band was to put out a series of classic covers from Johnny Cash to Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and J.B. Leinor, which were to be completely rearranged while still preserving the rude and crude grooves of their roots.
After honing their sound during several years of playing many small venues (the band prefers such intimate venues), Moonshine Booze realized that they had developed their own unique sound - a sort of cynical mix of western-funk-tex-mex-rock in a bluesy tone sauce and with bizzare touches, setting them apart from the standard fare in the 'rock' realm. BANDCAMP, FACEBOOK.
One of fourteen tracks (if we include the brief Intro) on the forthcoming album 'The Place' is a pretty good introduction both to the band and what's in store regarding the album. This is a band that are hard to put into just one genre as is made clear with the above promo piece. That they are highly original, creative, and perhaps just a little crazy should be taken as read, you can add fun and emotive, such is the variety packed into the collection, and the video for the featured track is a gem in it's own right, in summary, check them out!
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Background - Lotte Kestner's new video for 'Go To Sleep Now', is directed by Chris Cunningham. 'Go To Sleep Now' started off as an instrumental skeleton of Williams beat boxing along with synth bass and keyboard lines, which she later had emulated by live drummer and bassist Adrian Van Batenberg and Christopher Merrill, the only song on the album with a rhythm section. The song eventually merged with a poem she had written about driving toward Seattle in a storm on the highway, a love song to the city in its soft haze. The song features layers of vocals sung into different microphones.
Lotte Kestner is the pseudonym of Anna-Lynne Williams, formerly the singer in beloved band Trespassers William and featured on the Chemical Brothers' Grammy winning album Push the Button.
At times her voice is a dead ringer for Magnolia-era Aimee Mann, but the sparse spiritual yearning of Talk Talk or Red House Painters is a more apt comparison. The songs may be driven by piano, or understated acoustic guitar, but they’re fleshed out with bloodless synths, or in the case of “Have You Sailed Home,” beautiful strings. The darkness of a clean white room, furnished in ivory and plastered with eggshells.
Off White is a treasure, an album of shadows and silhouettes. Elegiac and uplifting, valedictory and ashen. It ends with a solitary piano figure, nothing left to say. WEBSITE, FACEBOOK.
'Go to Sleep Now' is one of twelve songs on the 'Off White' album, a treasure trove of beautiful, gentle and inspiring music. The featured track & music video typifies the attractive nature of Lotte Kestner's material, melodic hooks, passion and style are hallmarks of her sound, one that genuinely has a timeless feel to it.
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Background from Iskwe - I’m very pleased to share my new song, “The Unforgotten”, featuring the ever-powerful Tanya Tagaq, with you today. This is a community song that’s meant to be shared by all people – a round dance where everyone holds the hand of the person next to them, forming a circle that connects us with our ancestors, as one. The current climate of events for Indigenous people is not lost on me, and makes me feel that much stronger releasing this bad boy now.
Written last year in the wake of the Canada 150 celebrations, I felt it was important to remind everyone that while celebrating the wonderful things that make Canada a beautiful and unique place to live, it's imperative that we remember, honour and acknowledge our dark corners as well.
I'm proud of who we are as Indigenous people. I'm proud of what we've fought for, and how we continue to fight for our culture, our languages, our children, our women, our men, our earth and our water. But I'm also proud of all my non-Indigenous family and friends who continue to fight alongside us. This song is for all of us. Let's dance together! FACEBOOK.
Powerful and potent 'The Unforgotten' thunders along with a dramatically rhythmic backdrop and passionate vocals that urge the listener to become engaged and join in.
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Background from Josh Mover - "My band's new album was released Friday. It's called Into a Ghost, and is available to stream now.
For Into a Ghost, I culled together some good friends and talented Toronto rock alumni to play: Ben Reinhartz (Dilly Dally); Mathew Wronski (The Sulks); Joseph Landau (ex-Formalists), Will Hunter (The Nutrients), and Clara Klein.
Mastered by David Newfeld (Broken Social Scene), and recorded and mixed at Union Sound Company by Ian Gomes (Odonis Odonis, Teenanger), this EP was recorded in a whirlwind span of two days this past September, and was largely fueled by Figs Breakfast on Queen East".
Josh Mover & The Shakers is the musical project of songwriter Josh Mover. Combining elements of dark indie pop with a dash of folk and a pinch of punk. WEBSITE, FACEBOOK, BANDCAMP.
Josh Mover's vocals are distinct and the focal point for 'Into A Ghost' a slow paced rocker, where the music is superbly arranged giving each instrument clarity. Just add in the melody and hooks as is the case here, and the jobs done.
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The Ramona Flowers - Same Sun.Background - Having initially banded together in their shared search to find the sweet spot between rock and electronica, The Ramona Flowers have progressed through two albums – Dismantle And Rebuild (2014) and Part Time Spies (2016) – to their finely-honed third long-player, Strangers. Their most electronic and dancefloor-ready offering to date, its creation was overseen – as was its predecessor – by American, London-based producer Chris Zane (Passion Pit, Friendly Fires, St Lucia). “Chris has a brilliant knack for getting the most beautiful sounds out of classic synths," Sam James says of Zane. “This time around, we really wanted to be able to bring those kinds of sounds to life.”
The last few years have seen The Ramona Flowers playing concerts around the world, making many new fans - including the singer of U2. When Bono heard his daughter playing Lust And Lies, the pulsing and atmospheric lead track from the band’s 2013 EP of the same name, it caught his ear. Bono contacted the band and subsequently recruited the song’s producer Andy Barlow (one half of electronic duo Lamb) to help in the making of the Irish supergroup’s latest album, Songs Of Experience.
More fun and games were to be had when celebrated British actor Brian Blessed appeared in the video for The Ramona Flowers’ recent single If You Remember (from their 2017 EP Magnify). In it, the Flash Gordon and Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace star was cast as a drunken, faded thespian viewing his past achievements in his private screening room, then chasing stalking kids from his house, before enlisting them in the making of an ad-hoc movie. “We wanted to get somebody that was a character and had a bit of a name,” says James. “But the last person that we ever considered was Brian Blessed. It was left-field and quite cool. He’s a bit of a legend.” WEBSITE, FACEBOOK.
We featured The Ramona Flowers back in June of last year and now we have the new song 'Same Sun'. A crisp and pleasing indie pop/rock/dance song (you choose), this is a band that have worked hard to develop a very fine sound, one that deserves to travel.
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